Krannert director excited for musical highlights of 50th season

The Krannert Center for the Performing Art is looking spiffy a half-century after 1969 saw several blocks of houses give way to a temple designed by a University of Illinois alumnus, Max Abramovitz, who was also the architect of the State Farm Center and David Geffen Hall in New York City's Lincoln Center.

But what's happening on the inside is more important.

More on jazz and theater later; Krannert Director Mike Ross spoke mainly about new takes on classical music.

The Fall Marquee Great Hall season leads off with the Los Angeles Master Chorale performing Sept. 15 in the Great Hall.

"Lagrime di San Pietro," or Saint Peter's Tears, is a lengthy series of songs by Orlande de Lassus and "a masterpiece of the Renaissance," Ross said.

It's a one-of-a-kind performance, Ross said, because the singers perform it "from memory, and they are performing it in a theatrical manner. There's movement that has been choreographed for them.

"It's very expressive, even down to the facial expressions. It's impressive that these singers weren't trained as actors."

The Los Angeles Times described it as "a major accomplishment for music history."

There's also hands across the waters April 2 with Johann Sebastian Bach's "Goldberg Variations" "as a living art form, a collaboration between the Scottish Ensemble and a contemporary dance company from Sweden, the Andersson Dance Group."

There's a tradition of surprising combos that contributes to what Ross sees as a micro-urban community. Tech companies consider the quality of life when they decide to have offices in Champaign, and Krannert makes the most of being part of the University of Illinois, famous for engineering, computer science and other STEM programs.

"We need to think of a different way of portraying this community to avoid the preconceptions that some people have about a population of this size located in this part of the country," he said.

"I love the fact that this is a community that has such a strong diversity of demographics, and a lot that contributes to the quality of life in this community in the heartland," Ross said.

"Krannert is recognized as the premiere performing arts center on any campus and is critical to recruitment and retention. I hear that from the business community outside the arts world," he said.

Krannert embraces the Urbana campus' variety of strengths.

"The university offers a course in which each section is taught by a pair of faculty members, one from inside the College of Fine and Applied Arts and the other a creative thinker from another domain on campus," he said.

"We've had a physicist teamed up with a choreographer. The stuff that comes back is extraordinary. Being in a place where high level expertise and experimentation in the STEM areas is coming into contact with this high level creative research in arts and humanities — this place is a hotbed of collaborative work," he said.

"We think of this place as a discovery zone."

There is also a classical tradition that goes back 50 years — 20 of them led by Ross, the longest running director in the center's history.

The longest tradition of visitors — 36 performances — is with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, a partnership that goes back to CSO recording in Krannert, and in return giving master classes to UI musicians. It appears near the end of the season.

Another regular is the CU Ballet's "The Nutcracker" from Nov. 30 to Dec. 9.

"Classical music is a living art form; it continues to evolve even as the warhorses remain incredibly important," Ross said.